Taliban China Communist Party (CCP) and India: Lalit K Kaul

                                 Taliban China Communist Party (CCP) and India

Lalit K Kaul

The CCP and Taliban are natural allies in that both have similar political ideologies, one based on the belief in Allah and the other in negation of that belief, though. Both believe in the rule by iron hand over their subjects that results in a sociopolitical dispensation which does not entertain human rights, right to freedom of expression, speech and dissent. The rule by iron hand relegates free citizens to status of subjects (slaves) who are mandated to conduct/function like pre programmed robots. The success of such a regime is invariably ensured by publicly setting such cruel and dreadful examples that inculcate very deep sense of fear in the minds of the subjects that ensures compliance with the powers that be.

Indian sociopolitical dispensation is 180⁰ out of phase with that of both the Taliban and CCP in that her citizens demand unlimited freedom in everything they may like to do or not to do and this granting of unlimited freedom is a de-facto situation wherein even seditious acts and expressions go unpunished as the perpetrators of such anti national acts obtain a lifetime bail - courtesy money power and surplus availability of black coats who specialize in obtaining a status quo ante from the milord fraternity.   

Uyghur Muslims are a non-entity:  

In a totalitarian regime human lives are the cheapest dispensable commodity and enforcement of this principle is always secular no matter whether, the subjects are theist or (forced to be) atheist; the society is multi religious and has many sects within a religious group  or multi ethnic or both. Therefore it shouldn’t be surprising that despite Uyghur Muslim persecutions the Taliban have declared China as best friend and the one with whom business could be done without interfering in each other’s internal matters.

India historically doesn’t even comment on the internal matters of another country and is known to take a neutral stand in the situation of a conflict between the two countries while suggesting peaceful resolution of the issues between them. The policy of non-alignment that India has adhered to is the basis for her diplomatic relations with other countries in the world.

Geo-economic and Geo-political Interests:       

Since India has never commented on the matters internal to another country, much less interfered in them; there is no reason why India should make restoration of human rights in general and women’s rights in particular in Afghanistan a pre-condition for continuing her development efforts in the region as also enhancing the trade between the two sovereign nations. How a country may be governed by her rulers cannot be dictated from outside, much less imposed; how Taliban treat their own people cannot be a matter of concern for India because she has no such jurisdiction over Afghanistan that would enable her to legislate laws for  what she thinks is more civilized governance. The UNHC may keep passing resolutions against the Afghanistan rulers and their governance, the inter country trade is known to find its routes despite sanctions at some risks, though. If India pulls out of Afghanistan or keeps a token presence in Afghanistan, she would be inviting her adversaries to an uninhibited control of geo-economic and geo-political interests in the region.

India need to always keep in mind an indisputable historical fact that both Pakistan and China were never friendly to her and while the one waged wars by its declared policy of “thousand cuts” the other betrayed India’s trust; first in the year 1962 and then in Dokhlam and on the LAC despite India’s efforts to befriend China. The so called time tested relationship with Russia need not be taken as inviolable because Russia is a lot more dependent on China for her trade (economy) because of the sanctions imposed by the mightier powers. Therefore, if in the playing field India is not a participating team, it is quite possible that Russia may choose to be a mute spectator if China and Pakistan scheme to pose a serious threat to India, having taken control of Afghanistan. In the absence of any mutual interest/binding between India and Afghanistan, the latter would remain indifferent if not be an active participant in the China Pak design against India.   

Affordable costs for enhancement of trade and development effort:  

Afghanistan is a sovereign nation and Afghans are known to vanquish invaders and occupiers of their land. In keeping with their character the Taliban need to be cautioned by India about the political intentions lurking behind every Chinese endeavour inside other economically and militarily weak sovereign nations. Under the guise of economic development in other countries the Chinese have always come up with such economic growth models that have only culminated in to being debt traps for the host countries and one such universal economic growth model touted by China is One Border One Road Initiative in addition to development of non feasible shipping ports in countries of militarily strategic importance. That the true intention of the Chinese economic cooperation model is to colonize the host country – crumbling under debt trap and unable to pay back huge loans – need to be put in to the heads and minds of the Afghan planners by presenting to them data on the Chinese investments across North Africa, South East Asia including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar etc. Sri Lanka may be made as the example of Chinese political intent behind ostensible economic cooperation.

To make the above presentation more effective, the Taliban may be handed over a comparative statement listing economic growth and development efforts of India and China, respectively, in other countries and depicting the net outcome of such endeavours by the two countries.

The only way the Taliban may be held back from implementing their pronouncements about China is by convincing them that the main aim of Chinese investments is political as in the long term she wants to take command of all the natural resources in the region by trapping the host country in huge debt; whereas the twenty years history of Indian development effort in Afghanistan is void of any political intent and as recently stated by the FM of India that India invested in Afghanistan for her people and so there is no parameter like possible/apprehended loss of investment under  changed regime. Therefore, the best bet for Afghanistan’s prosperity is the scenario in which countries without any political intent invest in there in a way that stimulates growth in GDP, per capita income and expenditure.

The Foreign Ministry’s office and other related departments should be able to prepare a White Paper on the Chinese intent behind their ostensible economic growth model and submit the same to the Taliban for their perusal.  

Whether, the internal situation in Afghanistan stabilizes or not; the Taliban take full control of the Afghanistan territory or not; human rights restored or not; India’s continuous presence in Afghanistan is required and it is in India’s interest to keep Taliban engaged in a way that culminates in to keeping China and Pakistan at bay. India cannot afford to lose the game without participating in it.